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Tag Archives: cambodia

Chapter 10

08 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by Ted in blogsherpa, travel packing, Travel Photographer, Travel Photographs, traveling, Vietnam 2011, wanderlust

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angkor wat, blogsherpa, cambodia, siam reap, Ted Nghiem, Ted Nghiem Photography, travel, Travel Photography, Travel Writing, tuk tuk drivers, Vietnam

Gone Tuk Tuking.

Vincent didn’t want to get up.  He was pretty grumpy.  But since today was our last full day in the Angkor Wat and we still have not seen everything, we tried to get to see what we could in our remaining hours.  
Our breakfast was finished and since this one temple was an hour tuk tuk drive away we left early.The temple we were going to see was unique in that it was not commissioned by the king, rather a king’s teacher.  This temple was known as the temple of women.  It used a red tinted sandstone for the building material.

We first stopped at a small temple on the way, but didn’t stay too long since of our drive out to the main stop was far.

When we did get to the temple of women, we went to the bathroom where this guy selling stuff actually talked Eric into buying something!  Gasp!  Well it was a book, but still, after 10 minutes of the guy trying to squeeze a deal, Eric caved and bought one.  While Vincent was walking towards me I spotted a cute girl on the side…

We made our way to the red sand stone temple where we saw a horde of tourists who were not only standing on delicate stone, but were talking so loud it destroyed the calm atmosphere.  They were obviously not interested in the temple at all.

We left the temple to look around the surrounding areas, while we waited for the other tourists to leave.

When we returned to the entrance of the temple, the other tourists left when we went back to enjoy the place all to ourselves.  

On our way back to the main locations, we stopped by the one temple made very famous.  The temple with an overgrown tree growing on top of it!  I believe it was shown in Tomb Raider.  We met some interesting Americans there teaching children games and drawing.

The better way to interact with the natives!

Our next decision was to see the floating islands for the sunset.  Remember my last entry?  Well when we went to the old market, for lunch when it started to pour.  So there goes that idea of going to the floating islands!

So we went to the restaurant, NYDC, which gave its profits to charity.

Eric mistaken my drink for his, so he drank my entire root beer bomber drink, which was good.  But Eric’s peach drink was fantastic!  Lucky mistake!

After we finished our food, we went to the store to buy some travel food, since we decided to not go to the floating islands.  Since this was our last day and Kim has been great, one of the things I left him other than a big and nice tip was my pretty, actually really, expensive poncho.

Later that evening, we went back to NYDC for dinner.  I actually wanted to stay at the hotel so I could go to sleep, but Ann and Vincent coaxed me to go. 

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Chapter 9

05 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by Ted in blogsherpa, Travel Photographer, Travel Photographs, traveling, Vietnam 2011, wanderlust

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

angkor bhayan, angkor wat, blogsherpa, cambodia, siam reap, Ted Nghiem, Travel Photography, Travel Writing, tuk tuk drivers

The Sunset and Sunrise Fun
When we first got to our hotel, I saw a brochure to bike to the Angkor Wat to see the sunrise.  I thought, since buying my bike, that this would be a great idea!  So I woke up super early for this.  I grabbed Eric’s flashlight so I could see, since it was pitch black out.To be honest I was a little scared.

Whenever I passed a parked motorist they just happened to restart their engines and go in my direction.  Though passing me later.  And I passed a lot of them.  I kept wondering, why on Earth would they be hanging out in the dark but start their engines when I pass?  I hope it is not my camera in my bag that is in front of me…

Not to mention there are sinkholes on the roads.  And.  Being on a bike, and all, would be pretty problematic.  I gripped my bike handles and Eric’s flashlight with my dear life!

I was stopped at the check in booth to show them my pass.  I wonder if they thought I was insane for doing this.  But I pressed on.

As I kept on biking in, I passed more moped drivers hanging out, and then starting their engines after I passed them.  Coincidence?  I sure hoped so!

When I made the first bend to get to the Wat, there was a pack of dogs who started to bark loud and chase after me as I pedaled even harder to get by!  What the heck!!  They gave up chase as I got to the entrance of the temple, but while it was still dark out, I saw shadows on the grass where the tuk tuk drivers would park during the day.  Something is telling me I shouldn’t be here.  Was it the pitch blackness?  The motorists?  The dogs??  Now this?   A sign of some fortune, buses of tourists were coming in so at least I would have some company.

But, the anxiety and nervousness was running through my system.

I turned right back around.  I did, sorta, enjoy the bike ride, but I do have three thousand dollars worth equipment with me, let alone I would like to enjoy this adventure unscathed.

I had to bike pass the pack of dogs yet again.  Either my eyes were tricking me, but there looked like there were more dogs.  Oh great!  Sadly this bike had only one gear, but I pedaled hard to create a huge distance between myself and the chasing dogs!

As I biked, I passed more incoming buses of tourists, but I didn’t care.  I wanted to get the heck out of there!

I made it back to my hotel by 5:55 am.  It was like I was stealing a precious artifact!  We all know that any of the known relics have been excavated from the temples a long time ago!

A little later, I felt a little bit better over my decision to leave, aside from the chasings.  There was strong overcast, so any sunset would be filtered by murky clouds.

Back to sleep!

I woke back up at 8 am, as did they wake up.

I grabbed an egg and toast breakfast.  This was the second time I had eggs in twenty years, after quitting this meditation group I was once a part of.  Long story of why I quit, but I was a vegetarian for that reason. I still am a vegetarian, I won’t eat beef, chicken, or seafood, but I will be slightly more relaxed in my diet with eggs.  I mean, think of all the pastries that I have missed out since not having been able to eat eggs?!

Eric, Ann, and Vincent joined me a little later for their breakfast.  We decided to go to the temples all at once at 11.  Initially Eric suggested that Kim take me around first, but, I said that would be additional driving for him.  And since it was 10 already and then leaving at 11, that hour would be mostly pointless.

So we swam for a good hour and prepared to go.

The temple with a thousand faces and trees growing all over them, respectively.  Thom was awesome, just as much intricate detail as Wat, but with faces carved into the stones!  We went straight to the top of the temples!

This group of Chinese tourists really didn’t care about the temples that they were visiting.  There were signs everywhere that were pretty visually clear to NOT step on the stone arches and guards, but yet the tourists would step on them for a picture.  Stepping on those stones were leading them to break and be destroyed.  I am pretty sure the government doesn’t really care of a tourist hurts him/herself, but cares more about the stones remaining intact.  

Shortly a group of monks were walking around getting a photo shoot?  What?  Really?

When we left the temple we entered the elephant terrace.  It was some high platforms which was used to help men get onto their mounted elephants.  

Eric and I went off to some other temples, while Ann and Vincent waited with Kim.

Since it was getting close to the evening, and we wanted to see the sunset, Kim brought us to a restaurant near the entrance of Angkor so we would be able get back to this one particular temple to see the sun set over the Wat.

Eric’s rice wine was really strong, it was like drinking grappa, only that it did not come in a shot glass.   It was in a wine glass.  Strong stuff!  I had a fruit shake, which was sadly generic tasting, but it hit the spot regardless.

Soon after we hit the hiking trails to get to the top of this temple to see the sunset.

Then thunder cracked!

“Hey, that’s our queue to leave!” I said

“Eric, Vincent, we are leaving!”  Ann said to them.

You don’t want to be stuck on the temple when the rain hits, regardless of how big the storm was.  You just don’t!  Especially with steep steps and a long muddy hike back to transportation!  And if there was lightning, even worse!  Even though, people heard the thundersnap some people stayed a little longer hoping it was a passing storm, while the rest of us intelligent people quickly left.

When we got to the tuk tuk stop we had to search for Kim since there were lines of the drivers stationed there.  After several meters of walking, he spotted us and waved us over.  He has eagle eye vision!  He always sees us before we see him!  Since he knew the storm was a big one, he gunned it back to our hotel!  We were pretty much racing against other Tuk Tuk drivers to get the heck out of there before the bulk of the storm came!

As soon as we got to our hotel room, the torrential rain storm hit.  It was coming down!  It would have been extremely dangerous if we stayed 5 minutes longer!

We still had the Apsasa dance to go to that night.  We went to this mess hall, that served buffet.

hmmm…

When we got back to the hotel, the rain stopped and we went into the pool and back to our room to sleep.

Chapter 8

03 Saturday Sep 2011

Posted by Ted in blogsherpa, Travel Photographer, Travel Photographs, traveling, Vietnam 2011, wanderlust

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angkor wat, blogsherpa, cambodia, siam reap, Ted Nghiem, Ted Nghiem Photography, travel, Travel Photography, Travel Writing, tuktuk driver, Vietnam

It was an Indiana Jone’s kinda day.
Our first full day in Cambodia and we were heading to the Angkor Wat today!  I was the first one to wake up.

I went outside to write in my journal, but went back inside because of the mosquitoes.  I started out writing inside, but it was dark inside and I didn’t want to turn on the lights which would wake up everyone in the room.By the time I got back in, Ann was the next person to wake up.  Then Eric, and finally Vincent.  The sleepy bear-zilla.  We had to get ready for breakfast before we left for the temples.  Pancakes and French toast.  The wait staff, as with all of the people here were super nice.  They had excellent customer service!

When we finished eating, Kim, our tuktuk driver whom also brought us to the hotel, drove us to Angkor Wat.  

Oh my god!  It was gorgeous and super cool!

But first we bought our three day pass to the temples.  When we got to the first main temple, Angkor Wat, many locals were trying to sell us tours.  I am sure a travel book like Lonely Planet does a good job in instilling the culture and history, regardless of the tour guide stating that only they know the culture and history of the temples.  Well at least better.


We explored the courtyard leading to the Angkor Wat.  Most of Angkor are undergoing renovation and reconstruction, since over the centuries that temples have been falling apart by time and by man.  It is definitely going to take a really long time to reconstruct these magnificent structures.  

It was so cool that we got to explore mostly free around these structures.  It felt like an Indiana Jones’ adventure, even though the films didn’t take place in Cambodia.  This one guy pulled Ann and me aside to pray to this one statue.. and then donate.  Ah we got had!

We got to this one part of the temple where it was restricted for kids, so Vincent had to stay behind with Ann.  He wasn’t happy about it.  But it was really steep and a little dangerous with the wind.

Eric and I went up there to check it out ourselves, since Ann and Vincent stayed below.  It was pretty high.  We checked out how far this tower overlooked the Wat.

We went back down to explore more of the hallways of the Wat.  The walls had stories inscribed in the form of relief retold the battles of the Hindu gods and heroes.  

It was soon high noon.  It was time for a break, or rather, lunch!

We spoke to Kim about a great place to eat that is not too toursity.  He took us way outside of Angkor Wat, if that says anything, to this quaint place called Bopha Seas Srnag.  My vegetable curry wasn’t bad at all.

I had the Angkor Wat Beer and Eric had this other brew.  But Ann’s drink took the cake.  It was one massive coconut!

We went back to look at some smaller temples.  Today was mainly checking out Angkor Wat, the temple in the middle.  

It was soon 4 pm, which prompted us to leave.  The temples close at 5pm, and to beat the rush back we left an hour earlier.  On our way back, we went by this arch exit where people were feeding the monkeys.  With one guy allowing the monkeys to climb all over him for the bananas.  Already during this stay in Cambodia, I noticed tourists hopping and standing on delicate temple stones (which led to previous destruction of sites) and photograph natives without asking or compensating them for their time and image.  

When we got back to our hotel, we prepared to go to dinner at a place that I checked out back in HCMC.  Chamkar was a authentic vegetarian Cambodian cuisine, so I thought we should give it a try.  Kim knew the general direction of the restaurant, but when we got there we didn’t realize that it was in the European quarter.  Which was an alleyway of restaurants and stores.

It was a pretty nice place with rustic decor, there were two floors but we were on the ground floor.  The vegetarian food was pretty good as well.  The food had a coconutty flavor to most of them.

When we finished we went back to the main street to get our feet massaged by these little fish they had in tanks.  The fish would eat the dead skin, leaving only fresh and new skin.  It was defoliating our skin naturally.  Eric, Vincent, and I went in and came out laughing!  I couldn’t stop laughing!  I am already a pretty ticklish person, but this was extremely tickling!

We couldn’t last too long with this school of fish.  The fish loved me!  The school swarmed my feet!

When we were done we went back out to look for Kim and his tuktuk, but couldn’t find him.  So as I waited across the street, Ann, Vincent, and Eric checked out some stores.  But not for too long as Kim spotted me and waved us over to bring us back to our hotel.

We ended the night in the pool.  Ahh!

Chapter 7

29 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by Ted in blogsherpa, travel packing, Travel Photographer, Travel Photographs, traveling, Vietnam 2011, wanderlust

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Tags

blogsherpa, cambodia, phenom pehn, siam reap, sinh cafe, sinh tourist group, Ted Nghiem, Ted Nghiem Photography, Travel Photography, Travel Writing, Vietnam

What?!  The bus hit the Moped?!

We are leaving for Cambodia today!  With that excitement, 4 am.  Since most of my gear was packed last night, I spent my time sending emails and tweets.
Dangling my feet off the bed, I looked up at my ceiling as well as my ipad as I waited for 5 am to check out.  We had to be at the Sinh Cafe at 6 am since our bus leaves at 6:30 am.  The bus trip will take 12 hours (officially) 14-15 hours (unofficially).

I went down to the register to check out at 5:10 am, when the clerk tried to claim that I drank something from the bar.

“You drank a can of coke from the bar.”

“No. I didn’t.  I only drank the things I bought and put into the fridge.”

“Oh.  Ok.  Nevermind.”

Wait what?

When Eric, Ann, and Vincent came down, I realized that we have a lot of stuff.  My day pack was pretty heavy because of the water and snacks inside the bag.  It didn’t help that on the way to the bus, I carried one of Eric’s and Ann’s bag for them.

When we got to the Sinh Cafe, we waited till 6:30 am for the cafe to open so we can check in and for Eric to stash one of their luggage in there for the week.  I saw three cute girls, but, I think they were college students.  hmmm…

Eric checked us all in and we loaded onto the bus.

When we got to the border we had to leave the bus twice to check out of Vietnam and to enter Cambodia.  It was in a very cramped building with lots of people trying to get through.  

After going through customs and two hours into our bus ride, we passed a ferry where we were able to stop for a little bit.  Ann and I made our way to the bathrooms, but, we were told that we had to pay someone.  No one was there.. sweet!  Although I did forget the toilet paper that Ann could have used.  Vincent didn’t have to go, but when the bus was about to start moving he did.

Vincent!!

When Eric and Vincent came back, the bus drove towards the ferry.  All the people begging and peddling things had to jump off and out of the bus’s way, since the bus driver has been yelling at them to get off of the bus’s steps.  

We drove through villages on the main road to our first stop Phenom Pehn where we would have to transfer onto another bus.

After the 2nd village, about 2 hours into Cambodia a moped driver swerved into our lane and hit the bus.  Oh shit!

From the other passengers looking, it looks like he got away with scratches and scrapes.  Thank goodness!  But we had to wait 2 hours for another bus to come and take us the rest of the way since, the current bus had to stay for legal reasons.  We waited at this meeting place, not knowing what was going on.  Most of us had to go to the bathroom, so we left since we weren’t moving anywhere.

“The bathroom is back there.”  the man pointed to the shed.  Ah classic Cambodian bathrooms.  A little outhouse without toilet paper or flushing toilets.  This outhouse was right in the field where the water ox were working the field.  

We were finally told a bus would be coming to bring us to Phenom Pehn in twenty minutes.  That twenty minutes turned into an hour, which was not comfy and the driver thoroughly enjoyed honking the horn.

I tried to go to sleep, but with the dirt road being really tight and bumpy and with a bus driver enjoying the honking, no sleep could be found on this ride.

I was only able to get an hour of sleep in before we finally got to Phenom Pehn to change buses.  When we got to the station, I had to rocket crap because we had to load into the next bus immediately!  Go!

Eric, meanwhile, ordered us some food, as I was crapping!

When we loaded into the new bus, Eric brought my meal to me as he was sitting in front with Ann.  We had to sit in our assigned seats, and Vincent didn’t want to sit next to me.  Silly boy, I am a big guy it is hard for me not to bump into him in such a tight spot.

About 9 pm, we made it to Siam Reap.  While everyone was tired, Vincent was incredibly active- running around in circles and jumping around.

Eric called our hotel for our tuktuk driver, who also opened the hotel for us, checked us in, and brought our luggage up.  Whoa.

A tuktuk was a moped with a carriage.

We got our room through these nicely scented wooden stairs.  There were wood carvings everywhere!

When we got to our room we dropped our things off and went back downstairs for dinner.

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